


A Helping Hand

by kungfuwaynewho



Category: Babylon 5
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-16
Updated: 2012-02-16
Packaged: 2017-10-31 06:37:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/341049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kungfuwaynewho/pseuds/kungfuwaynewho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Delenn's having some trouble.  John offers a hand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Helping Hand

**Author's Note:**

> Set early S2, post "A Race Through Dark Places." Standard disclaimers apply.

John spent most of the ten minute walk through Green Sector trying to come up with an excuse, but none of them sounded any good to his ears. As he rang for entrance, he decided to just go with the truth. His date with Delenn last week had been wonderful, but the few times they'd seen each other since had been too formal, too bound by protocol and their duties as Captain and Ambassador. He didn't want to just grab a few words in the transport tube, or ask her how she was in the moments before a Council meeting began. He wanted to spend some time with her - out of uniform, away from any briefing or conference or war room. 

 

"Hello?" her voice asked through the intercom, and John wondered how he could know so much from just two short syllables. But she was frustrated, and upset - that was obvious. 

 

_Probably some kind of Minbari crisis, and now I won't need an excuse. Time for more work_ . John tried not to sigh. "It's me," he answered, and then he clarified. "The Captain." How did a pretty girl manage to make him feel fifteen years old again? He was glad he remembered what his rank was, and that he hadn't announced himself as the Commander or the Lieutenant. There was a long pause, long enough that he thought she might tell him that now was not a good time, but then her door swung upward. A moment to consider, and then John entered Delenn's mostly-dark quarters.

 

She was in the threshold of her bedroom, securely tying a robe shut. It was a pretty little robe, made out of some soft, thin fabric, and John felt his brain neatly divide into two sections. One he recognized as his own brain, as it normally operated. It informed him that she had probably already gone to bed for the night, likely after a long day, and he had awakened her. That was why she had sounded frustrated and upset. The other part of his brain was the part that had been long dormant, and from whom he hadn't heard in years. This was the part of his brain that was remotely controlled by his penis. _Naked!_ it shouted at him. _She was just naked! No clothes!_ The normal, adult part of his brain explained that she might have just taken a shower. But no, his penis brain retorted - her hair is dry. Not just dry, but wonderfully tousled and full. There was a single lock of it that laid across her chest, the end curling down toward her cleavage. 

 

John shook his head. He didn't need to be looking at her cleavage, or the way her hands were still fretting with the tie of her robe, unconsciously highlighting the curve of her hips as she did it. He didn't need to be checking to see if he could tell if she were wearing anything underneath the robe. He didn't need to glance down at her bare feet. There was no reason why the sight of her toes should make his heart clench.

 

"Captain? Is something wrong?" Delenn was looking at him as though there was something stuck in his teeth, and he realized he'd pretty much just been staring at her.

 

"No, nothing's wrong," he answered. "I just wanted to stop by and see you." She blinked at him, something wary in her face. She wanted him to go, he could tell, and had only let him inside out of politeness. "So," he went on. "That's a pretty robe." _Goddamnit!_

 

"Thank you," she replied, and they stared at each other for a few seconds. 

 

"What is it?" he blurted out, hating to see her look like this.

 

"What?"

 

"You're upset. Did I wake you up? I'm sorry. I didn't think to check how late it was."

 

"You did not wake me."

 

"What's wrong?"

 

She turned away from him then, picking some crystal thingy up, fiddling with it for a second, then putting it back down on the little bookcase that was apparently reserved for all kinds of little crystal thingies. She was fidgeting, and he had never seen her do anything remotely like it. 

 

"Nothing's wrong," she answered, and John wondered if the reason Minbari allegedly never lied was because they were absolutely shit at it.

 

"If you don't want to talk to me about it," he said, taking a few cautious steps her way, "is there someone else you can talk to?" She studied the tie of her robe, her mouth drawn tight, and John realized that she was doing her best not to cry. Finally, she shook her head. "Delenn..." he said, clenching his hands into fists to keep from reaching out and grabbing her.

 

She turned away more fully this time, wandering over to her kitchen. Her back was a straight line. "All things considered, my problem is quite unimportant. Many people experience far worse."

 

"You have a problem?"

 

"I do not wish to talk about it, Captain."

 

"Call me John." Delenn turned at that, her eyes a little wide. 

 

"What?"

 

"I'm not here as the Captain. This isn't about dealing with the League or some station crisis. This is about you." He walked her way again, and this time he had her cornered. She cupped her elbows in her hands, looking small and vulnerable. "Delenn," he said, taking one more slow step towards her, his hands out as though he were approaching a skittish animal. "I stopped by tonight because I wanted to spend time with you. I care about you, and I don't like to see you upset. You talked to me once, in the garden; told me about star stuff. It made me feel better. You have no idea. I just want to return the favor."

 

He watched her consider it. The moment when she let the wall between them come down was beautiful to watch. "It's nothing, really," she said, and then she fixed her eyes someplace around his collarbone. "When I changed, more of me changed than I had anticipated. My biological makeup is quite different now. My...reproductive system is human."

 

_Shit_ . John wondered if she were having to deal with periods, or cramps, or both. It was hard enough for human women who'd dealt with both for most of their lives. It was probably a nightmare to have something like that just start happening. "Have you talked to Dr. Franklin about whatever the problem is?" he asked. She was shaking her head before he could even finish the question.

 

"I do _not_ wish to speak about this to Dr. Franklin," she said, adamant. John tried to remember the name of the female doctor in Medlab One. Dr. Hobby? He reached out and gently brushed the errant lock of hair back over her shoulder, his finger grazing a half-inch of bare skin on her chest as he did so. He watched her shiver.

 

"It's something that most human women go through," he said. Delenn darted her eyes up at him, brow furrowed.

 

"That is not the impression I got reading what literature was available on the topic."

 

"Really?" They looked at each other, both puzzled. "What are you talking about?" he asked. The lights in her quarters were low, but he was sure that she started blushing. Her eyes dropped to the floor, and she worried her lower lip between her teeth. 

 

"At first I researched human reproduction. It is not very different from Minbari reproduction. From there I began to research...human sexuality." John's normal, adult brain firmly told his penis brain to shut up and go away. "Human sexuality _is_ different. Not just your rituals and customs, though those are quite different as well. I am talking about the actual biological system of..." She trailed off, and low light or not, he could tell that she was acutely embarrassed. The flush spread down over her chest. "The way humans experience sexual pleasure is completely unlike the way Minbari experience sexual pleasure," she finished.

 

John swallowed hard, wondering where all the air in the room had gone. "And this is a problem?"

 

She started to look a little wet around the eyes again. John wanted to take it back, because clearly it _was_ a problem, but it was too late. "I read about the human orgasm, but the description of the sensations involved made little sense to me. I wished to experience one, so I read about methods of administering pleasure to oneself." _She's talking about masturbation, John,_ his penis brain informed him. A flash of an image in his mind - a penis with a little face, nodding its head sagely. "Over the last few evenings, I have tried many different methods, but nothing has worked." She sighed, but all John could think about was the fact that she'd started reading about orgasms, and had been trying to have one, in the time since their date. He wondered if the two were connected.

 

"So I wished to see if perhaps I still experienced sexual pleasure as a Minbari does, even though my reproductive system is no longer Minbari," she continued. "We do not usually...pleasure ourselves. But I should have felt _something_ , and...I did not. Whatever happened to me during my change, it made it so that I could no longer experience sexual pleasure in any way." A tear rolled down her cheek, catching the light. John reached out and brushed it away with his thumb, and she looked back up at him. There was need in her eyes, and he was helpless. He drew her close, glad when she came willingly into his arms, tucking her head under his chin. Her arms tightened around his waist, and this time when she sighed, it was bone deep.

 

John rubbed his hands up and down her back, and kissed the top of her head. "Let me make you feel good," he said.

 

"You can't." 

 

"Not all pleasure has to be sexual. Just let me make you feel good." Delenn nodded, and he led her into her bedroom. Once there, he blinked a couple of times, made sure he was seeing it right. "Delenn? Why is your bed...?"

 

"Minbari believe that to sleep in the horizontal tempts death," she answered, sounding tired.

 

"Why?"

 

She looked at him, mouth opening and closing. "I don't know." He grinned at her, and she laughed. It seemed to surprise her. John held her face gently and kissed her, a soft kiss, the kind of kiss a friend could easily give another friend. 

 

"It'll work. Lie down on your stomach. Do you have any lotion?" Delenn was in the process of lowering herself onto her slanted bed, and she turned to look over her shoulder at him. She was beautiful; he didn't think he'd ever seen anything so beautiful.

 

"In the lavatory," she said, pushing herself back up. "I'll get it."

 

"Lie down," he ordered, and he didn't wait to see if she obeyed. He went into her bathroom, and took a few seconds to just look around. If someone's quarters were their one private place, then the head tended to be the most private place inside those quarters. Delenn's was neat and clean, with a row of pretty glass bottles over her sink, filled with different colored liquids. John picked one up, looked at it. Pink. He wondered what she used it for. He turned to look at her shower, which was exactly the same size as his, with the same frosted glass door, and the same shower head that never worked quite right. He imagined that as he had been making his way down to her quarters, she had been in here. Her body wet, slick with soap. He imagined her running her hands over her body; cupping her breasts, teasing a nipple with one hand as she slid the other down to the juncture between her legs.

 

"John?" she called from the next room, and he started out of his reverie. He was glad she hadn't come to look for him; he was just standing in her bathroom, holding a bottle of pink frou-frou something, staring at her shower. "The lotion is above the sink. It is white." He replaced the pink bottle, grabbed the white, and rejoined her. She was on her bed, up on her elbows, peering his way.

 

"Sorry. You have a lot of mysterious girly unguents in there." He smiled at her, but she didn't smile back. John wanted to smack himself; he'd given her enough time to change her mind. She looked anxious, and as he walked up behind her he saw her tense up even more. Then he remembered the way she had shivered when he had touched her hair. 

 

He set the bottle of lotion down on the little bench at the foot of her bed, and stood as close to her as he could. Very carefully, very slowly, he pulled her hair back so that it spilled down her back. Some men were breast men, some were ass men, some were leg men. John Sheridan appreciated the whole package, with a lot of variety at that, but damn if he didn't love a woman with long, lovely hair. He combed his fingers through it, smiling when she shivered again. He divided her hair into sections, moved them this way and that, making sure to scratch his fingers against her scalp. When he brushed to one side the hair that grew out of the bottom of her bone crest, she made a sound, a breathy little sound. To his ears, it sounded like a sex sound.

 

John had meant what he'd said. He had definitely planned to just make her feel good. She had probably been so intent on achieving sexual pleasure that she'd forgotten about regular old pleasure, full stop. He had decided to give her a really good back rub, the best back rub ever; he was going to get her loose and relax, and make sure she knew she was cared for, and that was going to be that. But now she was making little sex sounds as he massaged her scalp, and she _had_ wanted to know what an orgasm felt like.

 

"What are you doing?" she asked as he pulled her robe down, letting the fabric fall down to her waist, where the robe was still belted. 

 

"I can't put the lotion on your back if you're still wearing this," he murmured, taking in the sight of her naked back. Goddamn, but she had been naked under the robe. He pushed her hair to one side, his palm sliding over the smooth skin of her back. Smooth, and soft, and warm; his pants were getting just a little tight. John reached behind him to grab the lotion, and he warmed it up in his hands before he spread it over her back.

 

Delenn didn't need to know he had any ulterior motives in mind, and there was no reason she still couldn't have the best back rub ever. He pulled out all the stops, and before too long moans had joined the breathy little sex noises. She was relaxed now, completely relaxed. John watched her face as he worked - she had her head turned to the side, her eyes closed. "Oh, John," she whispered as he slid his hands down her spine. He went a little further down than he had before, letting his thumbs run just under the fabric of her robe at her waist. She grabbed the sheets just a little bit. Running his hands back up, he let his fingers splay to either side of her ribcage, the tips brushing the sides of her breasts. Another little moan, stifled - he looked up, and she was biting her lips.

 

John smiled, ran his hands back down. This time he let his fingers stray further under the border of the robe. She gasped something. Back up, palms against her ribs, rubbing the sides of her breasts at the top. There was no mistaking the way she pushed her hips against the mattress.

 

He leaned forward, putting his knees to either side of hers. He straddled her, and she turned her head to face the bed; he could hear her sucking in deep breaths. Back down, sliding his hands under the robe, squeezing her ass. A sharp indrawn breath. Back up, letting his own hips go forward, rocking against her ass, cupping her breasts. Her nipples were hard against his palms. "John," she choked out as she clutched the sheets.

 

"What do you feel?" he asked her, rocking his hips back and forth, massaging her breasts. They were a little larger than he would have guessed, just filling his hands. She was gasping for air, and he dropped a soft kiss on her cheekbone. "What do you feel?"

 

"An ache, between my legs." He kissed her temple, nice and soft, as he drew light circles around her areolas. She had worked out the rhythm of his hips, and hers moved back to meet his each time he slowly ground himself against her.

 

"A good ache?"

 

"Yes." Kisses down to her ear. John gently licked around the shell of it, then caught her earlobe between his teeth. He rolled one nipple between his thumb and forefinger as he slid the other hand down her front, dipping one finger into her navel. He slowly traced a line low on her belly, just above her pubic bone. Her moan had the shadow of a sob in it.

 

"Please," Delenn asked, turning her head to look at him. John had to abandon her breast to untie the robe still hanging around her waist. The fabric slid away, and he took a moment to peek down. "Please, please," she asked, drawing one knee up a little, pushing her hips hard against the bed. It definitely improved his view.

 

"Please what?" He undid the button and zipper on his pants, and sighed with relief as his erection got a little breathing room.

 

"John," Delenn begged, practically writhing. He leaned forward again, and humping was quite a bit different when there was just the thin fabric of his boxers between them. He knew she could feel his hardness against her, and when she let out a little cry and rocked back hard against him, John knew how the evening would end. 

 

He kissed her again, still just a soft, barely-there kiss. "What do you want?" he asked.

 

"You. Please, John, please." He moved his hand down again, and this time he didn't stop. He cupped her, her folds slick and smooth under his fingers. He thought to turn her over, get down on his knees and thoroughly explore her, taste her, but Delenn didn't give him the chance. She thrust hard against his hand, and John knew she was close. He pressed his palm flat against her, able to feel the hard nub of her clit. Crooning encouragements into her ear, he brought his other hand back to her breast. He timed each tweak of her nipple with her thrusts against his hand; after no more than a dozen, she came with a startled cry.

 

John urged her hips forward with his own, helping her ride the orgasm out. Finally he pressed the heel of his hand against her, wanting to bury himself inside ( _and oh, she was so wet_ ), but he wasn't done with her just yet. His own desire could wait. He kept her pinned between the bed and his own body until her breathing evened out some, and her hands relaxed their grip on the sheets. 

 

"Was...was that it?" she asked, and John allowed himself a smug smile at the slight slur in her words.

 

"That was it," he said, and he pushed himself up enough so that she could roll over underneath him. She spread her legs as he lowered himself back against her, and now her hands were the one sliding up and down. "Did you like it?"

 

Delenn nodded, tilting her head up for a kiss. He obliged her, letting himself kiss her fully for the first time. Her hands stole under his shirt, and John realized that he had long ago passed the point of no return. He had come down to Green Sector just hoping to talk to Delenn for a little bit; he hadn't even decided what he wanted their relationship to be. He still didn't know exactly what the future would bring, but he knew he would want this, this right here, as often as possible.

 

Delenn ended the kiss, looking up at him with a sly glint in her eye. "I also read about the male orgasm. It sounded quite strange."

 

"Perhaps a live demonstration would clear up any of your questions?"

 

"That sounds like a very good idea."

 


End file.
